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Superior to remain vigilant over Jefferson Parkway progress

By John Aguilar Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
05/02/2012 07:38:39 PM MDT

Updated:
05/02/2012 07:40:53 PM MDT

The most immediate concern of Jefferson Parkway opponents may have been allayed this week with the tabling of a state legislative bill designed to complete the beltway around Denver, but that doesn't mean the detractors of the high-speed tollway between Broomfield and Golden are kicking back and taking it easy.

"I don't feel this is dead," Superior Mayor Pro Tem Elia Gourgouris said Wednesday. "I think they may well introduce it again but a little less draconian next time."

Superior Trustee Sandy Pennington said the Beltway Enhancement Act, drafted at the behest of Jefferson County officials but never introduced as a bill at the state Capitol, is only the latest chapter in the long-stewing saga over whether to build the Jefferson Parkway.

The 10-mile segment, which would pass just south of Superior, would essentially complete Denver's beltway.

Superior opposes it because of worries it would exacerbate traffic problems in town and stir up plutonium from the long-defunct Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. Beltway proponents say an unfinished loop around Denver harms the local economy and impinges mobility in the region.

"I don't believe this issue is going to go away without a continuing fight by both sides," Pennington said. "I think we have to be prepared for anything."

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To that end, Superior hired veteran lobbyist Danny Williams to work against the bill, agreeing at a special meeting April 17 to lay out a maximum of $10,000 for his services. The town felt it needed the extra help at the state Legislature to oppose the bill, which would have given sweeping "dominant eminent domain" powers to a "beltway completion authority" to condemn public and private property for a road.

"Danny hit the ground running the very next morning," Pennington said.

Attorney Tim Gablehouse, who represents the town on parkway issues, said he hasn't received a bill for Williams' time at the Capitol but felt certain it would amount to less than $5,000. Superior may choose to tap him again next year when the new legislative session begins in January.

Pennington said it was money well spent.

"I definitely feel that this pre-emptive strike we took was absolutely necessary to getting this bill quashed at this point in time," she said.

But because there is no guarantee the bill won't be revived at the next legislative session, she said Superior must remain vigilant in opposing it.

Jefferson County Commissioner Donald Rosier, who supports the parkway project and was instrumental in getting the beltway legislation drafted, said there's no doubt the bill will see a second life next year if all sides in the debate don't make headway soon in resolving their issues. He said Wednesday that he and other parkway proponents backed off the bill last week only after officials at the Colorado Department of Transportation urged them to return to the negotiating table.

"If we do not get to the finish line with this round of negotiations, it may come back again," said Rosier, who serves on the board of the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority.

The commissioner accused Golden, which fiercely opposes the parkway, of abandoning talks late last year that were designed to mitigate the city's concerns over traffic and sprawl and allow the beltway to be finished.

"We spent over $120,000 in the collaborative process only to have Golden walk away," Rosier said.

Golden Mayor Marjorie Sloan sees it differently, saying negotiations over the Jefferson Parkway ended in December after "it became apparent that the parties could not reach an agreement." She said the draft beltway bill hasn't helped engender trust between the parties since.

"The bill was aimed at diluting Golden's ability to work through a solution," Sloan said. "I'm glad it's been withdrawn and that the relationship can be repaired."

In the meantime, a lawsuit Superior and Golden filed against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service continues to work its way through federal court. The suit is an effort by both communities to derail a land swap at the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge that would make it easier for the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority to build the parkway.

Gourgouris said the legislation drafted by parkway proponents was simply a way to ram a road through by any means necessary.

"I just feel like they're trying to circumvent the process in a heavy-handed way," he said.

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